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Maple Leafs report cards: Stolarz's excellent night carries Toronto in lackluster win

3 December 2024Last Update :
Maple Leafs report cards: Stolarz's excellent night carries Toronto in lackluster win

The Toronto Maple Leafs were expected to take care of business against the Chicago Blackhawks at home on Monday, and in literal terms, that’s exactly what they did.

Coach Craig Berube is unlikely to be exuberant about their 4-1 win, though, as his team let a last-place Blackhawks squad carry the play for much of the game. Superior scoring talent and spectacular goaltending won the day for the Maple Leafs — but they didn’t cover themselves in glory in a game where they earned 28.51 percent of the expected goal share at five-on-five.

Despite the lack of style points, the Maple Leafs can be heartened by Auston Matthews scoring for the first time since returning from injury and Frasen Minten delivering a timely goal that prevented a momentum swing toward Chicago. Anthony Stolarz also bounced back after posting a .868 save percentage in his previous two starts.

The Maple Leafs get a ‘C+’ for the uninspiring win.

Unit grades

L1 (Knies–Matthews–W. Nylander): B-minus

The debate over whether Matthews should be paired with William Nylander, Mitch Marner, or neither has plenty of juice left in it, but Nylander provided a powerful example of his ability to set up the sniping centre in the first.

That moment of brilliance was compelling, but the trio didn’t consistently carry the play against an unimpressive opponent, finishing the night with a rough 29.13 percent expected goal rate. Shots and attempts were more favourable, but a line this stacked should have its way with the Blackhawks.

Knies had a quiet night, but got on the scoreboard late by filling the empty net.

L2 (Holmberg–Tavares–Marner): B-minus

The second line came out firing with Marner ringing a shot off the crossbar on their first shift, but generally played low-event hockey. Just two shots reached the net in their 9:37 at five-on-five, with one finding the back of the twine.

It’s tough to give the group too much credit for a goal that was greasier than a pan pizza with triple cheese, but they prevented the Blackhawks from getting anything going in their minutes.

That was worth something on a night when the Maple Leafs spent a surprising amount of time under siege.

L3 (Robertson–Minten–Lorentz): B

The Minten line wasn’t particularly noticeable for much of the game, but the young centre delivered a goal just 21 seconds after Chicago scored its only goal of the game.

The 20-year-old now has two goals and two assists in five games since his AHL call-up — a far cry from his nonexistent production during his 2023-24 cameo.

Nick Robertson had some jump after ending his scoring slump on Saturday and put some promising midrange wrist shots on net, but nothing came of them. Steven Lorentz was his rambunctious self with six hits.

L4 (Grebenkin–Dewar–A. Nylander): C

A fourth line’s most important objective most nights is to avoid getting scored on, and this group dug a puck out of the net. They didn’t compensate for that by creating much at the other end — and Alex Nylander took a late-game penalty that could’ve invited Chicago back into the game.

On the plus side, Nikita Grebenkin had a couple of strong individual moments driving to the net, one of which gave the Maple Leafs a power play.

D1 (Rielly–Myers): B

Morgan Rielly and Philippe Myers probably won’t play together again much this season, but the duo looked steady on Monday. Myers didn’t look out of place, getting in the way of pucks, delivering seven hits, making the short passes asked of him, and hanging back to let Rielly freelance. His failure to clear the puck contributed to the Blackhawks’ only goal, but he did fine for an understudy.

If  Rielly had any concerns his fill-in partner wouldn’t be able to hold the line defensively, he didn’t show it, making some ambitious offensive-zone incursions — particularly early in the game. This makeshift pair was on the ice for two Toronto goals scored, and the Maple Leafs outshot Chicago 9-8 in their 15:25 at five-on-five. In five-on-five minutes without these two, the team was outshot 18-8.

D2 (Ekman-Larsson–Tanev): C

This duo had only played 16:30 together before Monday. Given that context, they deserve credit for not looking disjointed.

At the same time, they hardly excelled despite the conceptual fit with the adventurous left-shot defender (OEL) and stay-at-home righty (Tanev).

Their five-on-five work was middling as the Blackhawks out-attempted Toronto 12-3 in their minutes. The shot differential was less damning (3-1), but the veteran duo only blocked one shot combined, so they can’t take too much credit for that.

D3 (Benoit–Timmins): C-minus

Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins got filled in. There’s no two ways about it.

Both had meaningful contributions to the penalty kill on separate pairs, but they spent a long time running around in their own zone together. Stolarz’s highlight clips featured the pair prominently as Toronto was out-attempted 21-2 in their five-on-five minutes. Timmins assisted on the Minten goal to help salvage the evening, but it was still an unimpressive night at the office.

Power play: C

The Maple Leafs got just two opportunities on the power play, and they failed to convert, putting three shots on net.

The five-forward first unit looked sharp on their first attempt, and Tavares got a couple of good chances. Their second try was a bit clumsier, and when PP2 took the ice, the Maple Leafs were unable to get anything going.

Penalty kill: A-plus

Chicago isn’t rich with offensive talent, but the Blackhawks brought the NHL’s eighth-ranked power play into this one, and Toronto shut it down. The Blackhawks managed just one shot in 7:04 at five-on-four and failed to convert on a brief five-on-three stint.

Marner was consistently disruptive on the penalty kill and Tanev delivered plenty of calm-and-collected clears.

Goaltender (Stolarz): A-plus

Stolarz didn’t navigate a massive barrage of rubber, facing a relatively modest 28 shots, but he made some critical saves. The Blackhawks finished the night with 3.21 expected goals, and a worse effort from the 30-year-old could’ve easily tilted the game in Chicago’s favour.

Here’s a sampling of Stolarz’s quality evening:

Game score

What’s next?

The Maple Leafs host the Nashville Predators at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on Sportsnet.

(Photo of Anthony Stolarz making a save on Craig Smith: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

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